A year of helping homeowners stay in their homes

A year since its launch, Help to Stay Wales has been providing homeowners across the country with invaluable support and advice to help keep them in their homes. 

Help to Stay Wales offers support to those having or facing difficulty in paying their existing mortgage and are at risk of repossession and homelessness.

Eligible homeowners could be offered an equity loan to reduce their repayments to an affordable level.

The Scheme is operated by the Development Bank of Wales and is interest free for the first five years.

The Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government, Jayne Bryant, recently visited the home of Alice Brown, a Help to Stay loan recipient from Bridgend.

After her fixed rate mortgage deal came to an end last summer, Alice saw her mortgage payments almost double.

Alice said: “When my mortgage payments increased, my lender offered to transfer me to an interest only plan for six months. While this did help, it was only a temporary solution. 

“I wasn’t in debt, so the only financial advice I was getting wasn’t very helpful and the only thing I could do was reduce my mortgage payments. 

“I’d heard about the scheme after it launched last year and decided to apply and see if I was eligible for the equity loan. Thankfully I was and I was able to reduce my monthly payments, which was a massive relief.” 

The Cabinet Secretary said: “With increases in living costs, not being able to meet mortgage repayments is a real concern for a lot of homeowners in Wales. 

“Our Help to Stay Wales scheme offers homeowners time to resolve their financial situations and most importantly, helps keep them in their precious homes. 

“It was wonderful to meet with Alice and I’m very grateful to her for sharing her story with me. 

“We want to help more people before they face the awful threat of repossession and I would encourage anyone who’s worried about being able to afford their mortgage payments to check if they’re eligible for Help to Stay.